בס"ד
This is a blog for Jews who feel a sense of deep identification with HaYachad (Dead Sea Sect). This group is for Jews who feel nostalgia and longing for a Judaism that was, and a profound yearning for it to be again.
Our way leads to the Self-realization and, on an even more deeply satisfying level, the Mutual-Realization of Mashi'ach. That is what differentiates us from HaPrushim.
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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

It Never Ceases to Amaze Me How Every Distorted Concept of the Essenes Has Caught On, But No One Is Accepting the Truth

Every day in more ways than I can (or care to) imagine, money is being made on bogus claims to "Essenehood", while I can't get people to look at the truth about the Essenes for free.

Please take a look at the following URL:
http://www.treeoflife.nu/contact.html

I wrote the following to them:

B"H

Dear Tree of Life Foundation Representative:

I received a link to this site in the Jewish Vegetarian Newsletter that Richard Schwartz sends out. I subscribe to it because my husband is vegan.

I research linguistic anomalies in the Dead Sea scrolls. So, interested I flipped to your site and was quite astounded by what I saw.

All archaeological evidence proves that the Essenes were not vegetarians. In his book RECLAIMING THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, (Orthodox) Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffman writes: (that a) "considerable number of bones of edible animals found buried between the buildings in pottery containers...could not have been the remains of sacrifices..."

A photo of the shards of one of the pottery containers appears in the book. The caption reads: "Buried around buildings in the Qumran settlement were various deposits of animal bones, containing the remains of cooks - and apparently eaten - sheep, goats, and cattle."

The Essenes were in no wise vegetarians.

Of course, it is your democratic right to arrive at whatever assumptions you wish and build a society based on spurious claims. However, if you are concerned with historical fact and take pride in integrity and honesty with yourselves, you will desist from claiming any connection to the Essenes.